


Festivities

by feeding_geese



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 20:48:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feeding_geese/pseuds/feeding_geese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fluffy little drabble for one of my best friends, shesasurvivor.  Happy birthday!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Festivities

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shesasurvivor (starkist)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkist/gifts).



She waited for him on Tuesdays to finish up practice.  Sometimes Voss would join them on the walk home, but he was already in and out of the locker room and in the town square vetting his options for tonight.  So it was just the two of them this afternoon.  She was sitting at the table where they ate lunch every day, picking at the peeling blue paint as she watched a couple of the older Seam boys run laps.

“You got the Seam Fever, Delly?” he shouted as he came closer.  Her curls smacked her in the face as she whipped around, eyes wide.

“Shut up!” she squeaked.  “They’ll hear!”  At least one of them had--he was laughing and wolf whistled in her direction.  Delly Cartwright’s face flushed like rhubarb.  She made a series of bizarre hand motions at the boy before grabbing her friend’s hand and dragging him on the path towards town.  

“What was that all about?” he asked, rubbing his wrist.  She had a grip like a vise.

“You smell, Peeta,” she replied curtly.  “You’re going to need a shower before tonight. Did you work out who you’re going to take?”

“No,” he sighed, running his hand through his sweaty hair.  “What about you?”

“Oh, my card is full, Mister Mellark,” she boasted.  “I plan to dance Grover Wells into a shiny new pair of boots!”  Rats. Delly was always his fallback for the Harvest Festival.  The entire district celebrated it, as much as the district could celebrate anything.  The name was kind of a misnomer.  There wasn’t a feast, but there was a little music and dancing and a fair amount of contraband booze.  It was a good time, but more importantly it was good business.  Merchant families built up relationships at the Harvest Festival, and merchant children were expected to pull their own weight.  The Mellark boys had always been popular, and the right dance with the right girl, a charming smile or suggestive whisper could mean a better price on eggs or a cake order that may not have come otherwise.  Last Harvest, Peeta had been seeing Gracie Sloane, but that hadn’t been anything serious and he found himself single again this year.  Without a steady date, Peeta had no excuse not to dance with every willing merchant’s daughter.  And Peeta was not the world’s best dancer.  He’d rather sit back and watch everyone else.  He could build up business for the bakery much better with his mouth than his feet.  

“You might as well talk up every girl who’s going stag,” Delly smiled.  “Even if you could ask her, she’s not going to be there.”

“Who?” Peeta kicked a rock out of his path. She rolled her eyes.

“You know exactly who.  She never goes to the Harvest Festival.  It’s a shame, really.  It’d be a perfect excuse to talk.”

“Why would Katniss Everdeen want to talk to me, Delly?” Peeta’s huffing was met by Delly’s loud cackle of triumph.

“I never said her name!  You said it was kid’s stuff but I knew--I knew!--you were lying!  You still have a crush on,” the last part she whispered, “Katniss Everdeen.”

He never stopped having a crush on Katniss Everdeen, actually.  Not since he was five.  He’d dated other girls, kissed other girls, messed around behind the justice building with other girls, but he always held onto a small sliver of hope that Katniss Everdeen would catch him staring at her in Economics or when she brought squirrels to his back door.  Catch him staring and give him a smile.  Whenever those cool grey eyes found his in the halls a little thrill shot up his spine, like in some crazy place that wasn’t District Twelve he could talk to her and court her and totally marry Katniss Everdeen.  But it was a stupid dream.  He’d end up with some town girl whose family helped the bakery’s bottom line.  He told himself it wouldn’t be so bad.  He’d be out of the house, the girl would be nice, and he’d probably eat a decent meal for the first time in his life.

Still, the image of Katniss Everdeen in her hunting leathers kissing him behind the justice building played on a loop somewhere in the back of his mind.

Peeta was so lost in thought that he’d completely ignored that Delly had just kept yammering on about the available girls at the Harvest Festival and which ones had the most to offer.  It wasn’t that she thought his crush was silly, she just knew it was fruitless.  And doomed, seeing as he never worked up the nerve to say anything to Katniss Everdeen anyway.  Both merchant kids were too caught up in their own plans to even notice Katniss Everdeen standing next to her little sister in front of the bakery.  The child’s face was as close to the window as it could get without making contact.  A smeared window would cause his mother to storm out of the shop and chase them away; she was probably just barely containing her anger at Seam trash loitering in front of her bakery.  While the smallest Everdeen daughter marvelled over the festival pastries on display, her sister darted her eyes distractedly around the shops.   _She’s uncomfortable everywhere_ , thought Peeta.   _Everywhere except the woods, probably.  I bet she’s totally different in the woods.  I bet she smiles there._  Then Peeta Mellark saw it.  Saw a gentle smile break the almost permanent scowl Katniss Everdeen wore everywhere.  It was for her sister.  She looked up at Delly’s prattling and for an instant, a bright glorious second, Katniss was smiling at him.  Fireworks went off in his head, he felt a little dizzy.  Just as his mouth caught up with his brain and his lips started to twitch upward,  her smile vanished.  She turned her head quickly away from the town kids and ushered her sister away from the shop window.  He let his chance to stop her slip by, even with Delly pushing at his back and whispering furiously to just “say something, dummy!”

That night at the Harvest Festival, Peeta didn’t dwell on his lost opportunity.  He danced horribly and flirted with the daughter of their grain supplier and even sneaked a pull of white liquor.  All the while thinking only of Katniss Everdeen’s sweet, sweet smile. 


End file.
